Wonder why when things really touch my heart...it makes me want to write?

Hi there.  It has been a while.  I was camping with the Cubscouts last weekend (first time camping in a campground in a tent for me!) and then who knows what has been going on since the last time I wrote.  Life.  That is what has been going on. 

Today's thoughts center around stuff that touches my heart.  My son dug out a set of baseball stuff from a young man friend of ours.  The young man passed them along to Carl when he outgrew them.  It is such a nice evening and we are moving into the last night of our first week of official...out of school-ness.  It is really the first night this week that I didn't work in the evening as well.  That makes it nicer too. 

But getting back to things...Carl asked us to pitch the ball to him.  We had things to do...but he went out anyway.  He tried and tried to throw the ball up and hit it himself.  It was sad to see in some ways and really lovely in others.  He has such a wonderful, kind and try-try-again spirit.  I so love that about him.  So I sent Tim out to pitch.  "Ok, but just a couple."  How long ago was that?  So he pitched and Carl hit and again...and again. But then he found a mit and Tim taught him how to use it.  That was when the real fun began.  They have been at it now for a long time.  Just hearing them calling to one another...does it get any better than that?  Simple pleasures, I know. 

The dogs are out lazing about in the grass.  I did some juicing tonight and fed our chickens a little of the veggie pulp.  They didn't know what to do with it.  But a couple of them let me hold them.  They are getting so big!  They are starting to look like real in-the-magazine-kind of chickens now.  Not quite onto adult feed, but we will be there in about a week. They liked strawberries and lettuce.  I don't think they thought too much of the carrots, but if you think about it, carrots are kind of an acquired taste. 

I came home after a really frustrating day and decided it was time to get my wiggles out (as Carl puts it).  I ran and walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes!  That is a lot for me.  It got my heart pumping and the sweat going.  But most of all, it got rid of my wiggles.  Funny, but it gave me some energy too.  I have been so exhausted this week.  Never feeling like I can get ahead of the ball...you know the ball that is chasing me down. 

This is a joyous time for my family and a tough time too.  My oldest sister Patty is in the hospital this week.  She is kicking some cancer butt.  I heard she will be in-patient for 8 or 9 days.  She sounds hopeful.  And I am taking hope from that as well. 

And my niece (another sister' daughter) is graduating from school and officially becoming a Naturopath.  Is that cool or what? 

Oh and what other news?  My dog Belle's brother's family got in touch with us!  And we found out that he doesn't live that far away from us!  I wonder if they will remember each other?  It hasn't been a year, but they were just babies when they were separated.  I remember how sweet they were playing together.  From the picture they sent, it may be a case of city mouse meeting country mouse.  Do you know that story?  Well, their dog is definitely not the country mouse.  He was laying on what looked like an antique chair.  Funny.  But as they have a fence yard, we decided we would meet at their house.  We haven't made a date yet, but I am really looking forward to it. 

Ok, I think I am all taked out for now.  Love to you and yours.  And don't forget, no one is perfect.  Revel in your imperfection and remember that it is what really connects us all and helps us to need one another. 
P

The girls are in their element!

Ok, I already told you a number of times, but I love Saturdays!!  Today, I was so excited to get up and to see how the chickens did that I woke up at 5:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep!  I checked on them.  They were eating and drinking and doing all the things chickens do.  The funnest part for me though was that they had ROOM.  They were not on top of each other and they had a little room to move around and check things out. 

I cleaned the kitchen, got a load of laundry going and picked up a bit while listening to Dave Ramsy recordings.  I listened to the Great Misunderstanding this morning.  It is inspirational.  It is about why giving is important.  And it got me revved up.

A few hours later I woke Tim up and he went out and mowed the little patch of lawn where we want to have our girls for their first stop.  We moved them over and opened their house.  It was fun to watch them peek their heads out.  They are only about two months old, and yesterday they hadn't been able to figure out how to use their ramp up into their home.  Today, their curiosity got the best of them and they all pushed each other down the ramp.  Now just to figure out how to get back up! 

It was fun to see them run!  They have been so cramped that they haven't been able to run.  Now they are running here and there.  I threw some feed around so that they they had something to search for and then I threw in some tiny pieces of carrot as well.  They are loving their freedom.

The dogs are a little too interested.  My nephew said something about an electric net.  I am going to get more info on that.  For now, I feel like Tim's chicken tractor is safe and secure. 

By the way, I am SO proud of my husband.  He designed this chicken tractor, he decided the pieces that he would need and he put the whole thing together.  It is beautiful!!  And I think he feels good about his work too.  I am sure that he has ideas for upgrades already.  :-)  That is just who he is. 

Love to you and yours on this Saturday morning.
P

P.S.  Pictures to follow.

Working on living more sustainably

I am finding I am struggling a bit with what blogging is for.  I read others' blogs and find that they blog in a certain direction.  My direction these days is learning to be more in nature and to live more frugally, more sustainably and with more ZEST!  I am looking for ZEST!!

Today is our chicken tractor day.  Tim drew up blue prints and we are going to work on building it today.  Carl was so cute yesterday.  He said, "Dad, I'll help you however I can!"  We have a list of items needed and we are planning to go to Home Depot in a bit. It should be an adventure. 

I am not much of a do-it-yourselfer.  But I am finding more and more that I can learn new things.  I am currently growing lettuce, carrots, onions, tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis and some yellow squash.  They are looking lovely and so far the rabbits haven't found the holes that got burned in the deer fencing around the garden.  How did the holes get burned?  Well...it had something to do with the cool weed burner we have.  But I won't say more about that.  :-)  I will probably be fixing our fence today too. 

Why do we want chickens?  Of course eggs are good.  And I like animals.  I like taking care of them and interacting with them.  And when I first thought about it, I talked to my sister who has a number of chickens.  She told me that they eat all their kitchen waste.  That is cool.  Mostly because our worm bin is too small and they are unable to keep up with the amount of veggie waste that we produce.  This is a good sign because when we got the worm bin, we didn't have much waste and it was just fine.  This shows that we are really working on eating better and eating more whole foods. 

And fertilizing is also a great part of chickens.  That is why we decided on a tractor.  Our soil is bad out here and every little bit of fertilizer and building up of the soil will help. 

I am a bit worried about the wildlife and them taking an interest in the chickens (this includes my dogs), but we just have to prepare the best way we can and then try it.  Hope it works!!

As another step in our frugal living/more sustainable living quest, we started back with our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this week.  I like to call it our farmshare.  We get a half share of veggies and a half share of fruit every week.  The takings were sparse this week, as it has been unseasonably cold, but things should be moving in the right direction soon.  The farm is just down the road and they are a nice family.  It is neat to know where our vegetables are coming from. 

We are hoping to do some canning this year as well.  We use a lot of tomatoes in our cooking, and even putting these up ourselves would be a huge money-saver.  Or at least it would be cool to know that we grew them and canned them ourselves! 

It looks like it is going to be a lovely day today.  The sun is out and it is supposed to be in the mid-70s today.  NICE!  The dogs are already out enjoying the morning.  I guess I had better get there too.